Faith in Our Neighbors: Networks and Social Order in Three Brazilian Favelas

After nearly 20 years of democratization, residents of Rio's favelas suffer high levels of civil and human rights abuse at the hands of both police and drug traffickers. The government is generally unable to guarantee the political order necessary to protect the rights of residents in these communities. Existing theories of democratization and advocacy networks offer little to explain how the types of endemic violence that affect poor neighborhoods in the developing world can be brought under control. Based on more than two years of participant observation and interviews in Rio de Janeiro, this article examines how democratic order can be extended to favelas. It argues that networks can link favela residents to organizations in civil society, and state actors can play a critical role in reducing violence and establishing democratic order.     

Chronicle of a Survival Foretold: How Protest Behavior Against Armed Actors Influenced Violence in the Colombian Civil War, 1988–2005

This article examines the circumstances under which civilians, using protests as a mechanism, alter the strategic use of violence by armed actors (rebels and state forces). By examining the civil war in Colombia between 1988 and 2005, this study finds that combatants decrease their attacks against the population when civilians protest against the enemy. Combatants interpret such demonstrations as costly signals of loyalty. Furthermore, when insurgents are the target of the protests, insurgents increase repression against civilians as rebels get stronger. In contrast, state forces (and paramilitaries) compensate for their weakness in the area by multiplying civilian victims. Both state forces and rebels, however, are likely to decrease violence against civilians when civilians protest against both parties in contested zones. In such contexts, armed actors are likely to refrain from retaliation because any violence might drive noncombatants toward the enemy.     

Sociodemographic,Clinical, and Therapeutic Aspects of Penitentiary Psychiatric Consultation: Toward Integration Into the General Mental Health Services

The characteristics of mental disorders, as well as deficiencies in their treatment, must be properly defined. This was a prospective, longitudinal, observational study, in which all men referred to a penitentiary psychiatric consultation of three penitentiary centers in Spain were invited to participate. Those who consented to participation (1328) were interviewed at the baseline timepoint and at intervals for up to 3 years. The presence of mental disorders was high: 68.2% had a cluster B personality disorder, 14% had an affective and/or anxiety disorders, 13% had schizophrenia, and over 80% had a dual disorder. Polypharmacy was the norm. Moreover, the health care received in prison did not match that provided in the community in terms of quantity and quality. These results should help to facilitate the design of mental healthcare provision for prisoners, focusing on both the most frequent patient profiles and equality of care.     

Perceived Discrimination and Peer Victimization Among African American and Latino Youth

Perceptions of racial discrimination constitute significant risks to the psychological adjustment of minority youth. The present study examined the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and peer nominations of victimization among 173 (55 % female) African American, European American and Latino youth. All respondents completed peer nominations of victimization status whereas the African American and Latino youth completed subjective measures of racial discrimination. The results indicated that African American and Latino’s subjective perceptions of racial discrimination were linked to nominations of overt and relational victimization when rated by their European American peers. The results suggest that there is consistency between African American and Latino youth’s perceptions of racial discrimination and nominations of peer victimization by their European American peers.     

Multiple regression models for age estimation by assessment of morphologic dental changes according to teeth source

The aims of this study were twofold: (1). to measure parameters that contribute significantly to estimates of dental age, using a combination of classic methods and a computer-assisted image analysis procedure to avoid the bias inherent in observer subjectivity; and (2). to develop new mathematical regression models for age prediction according to postmortem interval. Two different populations were studied. Forty-three permanent teeth (Group I), extracted for valid clinical reasons, were taken from patients 25-79 years of age. The other population group (Group II) was composed of 37 healthy erupted permanent teeth obtained from human skeletal remains (age 22-82 years) with a postmortem interval ranging from 21 to 37 years. Morphologic age-related changes were investigated by measuring variables on intact and half-sectioned teeth. Multiple regression analyses were performed with age as the dependent variable for each sample source. In fresh extracted teeth, the variables that made the greatest contributions to predictions of age were dental attrition, dentin color, and translucency width, the latter measured with a computer-assisted image analysis method. In teeth from human skeletal remains, the variables that made the greatest contributions to age calculation were cementum apposition, pulp length measured by computer-assisted image analysis, dental attrition, root translucency, and dental color. We conclude by recommending different regression models to calculate age depending on the postmortem interval.     

A Preliminary Evaluation of the Spanish Parent–Child Aggression Acceptability Movie Task in Spain

The current study presents a preliminary evaluation of a Spanish adaptation of an implicit analog procedure, the Parent–child Aggression Acceptability Movie task (Spanish Parent-CAAM). Based on Social Information Processing theory, Spanish Parent-CAAM scores were expected to relate to self-reported PCA attitudes, negative child attributions, and child abuse risk in Spanish students; 245 undergraduates in Spain completed the Spanish Parent-CAAM along with self-report measures of PCA attitudes, negative children attributions, inclination to punish misbehavior, and child abuse risk. Findings indicate Spanish Parent-CAAM scores were significantly related to explicit measures of PCA, attributions of intentional child misbehavior, propensity to punish such misbehavior, and increased child abuse potential. Results are considered within the cultural context of Spain’s corporal punishment ban and PCA attitudes.     

Presupuesto público sin participación ciudadana. La necesidad de un cambio institucional en México para la consolidación democrática

Over the last thirty years, Mexico has undergone an important consolidation of its institutional framework, focused primarily on the electoral and political system. This process of political change was accompanied by a significant transformation and liberalization of the financial and economic system. Mexico’s current situation proves that both processes do not yield satisfactory results when social problems are left unattended. In fact, the transition from a noncompetitive political system to a more democratic one, has not guaranteed better living conditions for most of the population, in part because there is practically no participation in public life on behalf of most of the citizenry. This article reflects on the fundamental importance of citizens’ participation in democracy. Particular attention is paid to public participative budgets as factors which may contribute to democracy’s consolidation and quality, but which have had negligible impacts thus far as is illustrated by public participative budgets initiatives that have been held in Mexico City.     

El federalismo cooperativo como factor catalizador de un Gobierno Abierto

The paper aims at outlining a framework of analysis that substantiates the significance of collaboration among governments, under the assumption that a rigid system of competition tends to result in the splintering of public affair solutions in government agendas. Cooperative federalism, to the degree that it may produce intergovernmental relations, points towards a support of holistic solutions to demands written into the action plan that serves as a precondition to enrollment in the Open Government Partnership (ogp). The proposal presented by Mexican representatives during the June 2012 meeting in Brasilia, envisioning governmental aperture at the subnational and local levels, would have more possibilities of success if minimal bases for cooperative federalism that may serve to manage public affairs are set forth previously.